


An Unexpected Dive into a Problem

by Sillus



Series: Nice to meet... me? [3]
Category: Linked Universe - Fandom, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Epona - Freeform, Linked Universe (Legend of Zelda), Minor Injuries, Misunderstandings, Sky is trying, Time Travel Bullshit (technically), Time is DONE
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-27
Updated: 2019-07-27
Packaged: 2020-07-20 15:55:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19994827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sillus/pseuds/Sillus
Summary: He doesn’t get an answer. Before Link can get the wind under the sailcloth, the haziness overtakes him and the world spirals away as he slips into unawareness.He fails to notice the world changing around him, the trees below suddenly disappearing and water taking their place. Bridges connect the few islands poking from the surface of the water together, and a lone house sits on the edge of a low cliff.However, a man who had been fishing while his mare grazed behind him saw Link appear from seemingly thin air and hit the surface of the lake with a deafening splash. The mare lets out a startled whinny, trotting to her master and nosing his cheek as he lets out a very long and exasperated sigh.“Same old shit,” He mutters under his breath as he stabs the end of the fishing rod into the sand and makes his way toward the water.





	An Unexpected Dive into a Problem

**Author's Note:**

> Eeeyyy it’s done! This one was a lot harder than I thought it would be, but I did it.  
> I hope you enjoy!

There are a lot of aspects of the world that Link loves. Swimming in the water, the shade cast by trees, the friendly creatures in each area, Skyloft and her people, _Zelda_ … he could go on and on for hours if prompted to.

  
But there is one constant that will never fail to bring him comfort: the wind.

  
It was an ever-present presence while on his journey, only disappearing when Link ventured into dungeons in his search for Zelda. Whether he is home with her, exploring the areas of Surface he missed on his journey, or flying through the sky on his trusted Loftwing, the wind is always there to accompany him.

  
Even now, as he visits old friends in Skyloft and runs some errands, it runs its fingers through his hair and caresses his cheeks. Link adjusts his grip on his groceries, a small smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

  
When he reaches one of the many docks, Link fiddles with his belongings: tying them to his person and double-checking them to ensure they would not become undone. After the first—and only—incident, Link has refused to take any chances. Besides, he didn’t want to lose the gemstone he had bought for Zelda.

  
… It might have been an impulsive decision to buy it, but Link has no regrets.

  
Giving himself one last onceover, Link dives off the dock and whistles for his companion. The wind whips at his clothing, pushing against Link as he spreads his arms out, and all he can feel is elation. The feeling stays as his Loftwing catches him with a welcoming chirp. He runs his fingers through the bright red feathers, trusting her to lead him to where Faron Woods awaited below.

  
She seems jittery today, Link notes. She is happy to see him, and comfortable with him on her back, but something has her flying far more careful than usual. Something has her sweeping side to side, as if she is searching.

  
“What has you wound up?” Link murmurs, taking a careful look around as they descend in the direction of the green beacon protruding from the clouds. He sees nothing out of the ordinary, but that only serves to make him more suspicious. He trusts his partner’s instincts as much as he trusts his own.

  
But nothing appears, and soon enough, they are hovering over the hole in the clouds that leads to Faron Woods.

  
“Stay safe. I’ll see you soon.” With that, Link gives his partner a parting pat before slipping off her back. She continues to hover as he falls, watching over him as she has always done. Link lets himself free-fall for a moment, enjoying the rush of air and the beautiful view of the forest. It looks so small from this height.

  
He is jolted from his thoughts when his Loftwing suddenly shrieks out a warning. Link twists in the air, looking back up at the clouds just in time to see a dark blur plummeting from the sky and heading straight for him. Link draws his legs to his chest, bracing himself.

  
The blur slams into him, forcing the breath out of his body. An arm scrabbles for a hold on him, the other flailing wildly. Link tries to kick the form away, flinching back when the arm swipes for his eyes. The sun glints off the dagger in its hand. Alarmed, Link’s kicking grows more frantic. He pries the fingers off his arm, but the hand latches to his wrist immediately after.

  
He must get away. The form—it looks like black smoke—keeps trying to draw him in and slice at his skin with the dagger. It nicks him in the forehead, and only because Link had ducked at just the right moment. It would have hit his eyes otherwise.

  
_Stupid_ , his mind screams, _stupid, stupid, stupid!_ He should have taken a weapon with him. It always pays to be prepared. Why didn’t he bring a sword? Monsters might not be around anymore but going around weaponless was idiotic of him! The shadowy form yanks him close and the dagger slices his cheek open. Link grapples with it, trying to wrestle the weapon out of its hand. He needs to hurry, or else there won’t be enough time to pull the sailcloth out and _he should have brought a weapon!_

  
With a yell, Link gives the shadow a mighty kick in the chest and sends it spinning away. He doesn’t have the dagger, but his enemy is away from him now. Link scrambles to untie the sailcloth from around his neck. He thinks he still has time to slow his descent, but his vision is rather hazy, and the trees are blurring.

  
Was the dagger poisonous?

  
Link feels a chill run up his spine at the thought as he tugs the fabric free. An assassin, perhaps? But why? Demise is dead, and the people still live in the skies. He has saved everyone, so why try to kill him? It doesn’t make sense.

  
He doesn’t get an answer. Before Link can get the wind under the sailcloth, the haziness overtakes him and the world spirals away as he slips into unawareness.

  
He fails to notice the world changing around him, the trees below suddenly disappearing and water taking their place. Bridges connect the few islands poking from the surface of the water together, and a lone house sits on the edge of a low cliff.

  
However, a man who had been fishing while his mare grazed behind him saw Link appear from seemingly thin air and hit the surface of the lake with a deafening splash. The mare lets out a startled whinny, trotting to her master and nosing his cheek as he lets out a very long and exasperated sigh.

  
“Same old shit,” He mutters under his breath as he stabs the end of the fishing rod into the sand and makes his way toward the water.

* * *

  
Link’s eyes fly open and when he breathes in, he sucks in water instead of air. He attempts to move, but his arms are ensnared in his sailcloth. He feels a weight on his back as he tries to kick himself up to where he thinks the surface of the water is.

  
_Wait, when did I fall in water?_

  
The light from the sun— _the sun? Through the Cloud Barrier?_ —is blotted out by a silhouette.

  
_No, not again!_

  
Link struggles to free himself from the sailcloth in earnest now, fighting back the urge to draw in a breath. The silhouette—the dark blur, the black smoke that still has the dagger—is swimming down to finish what it started, and it is alarmingly fast. A hand grabs the collar of his tunic just as Link frees an arm and he doesn’t hesitate to lash out with a punch in what is hopefully its face.

  
The figures reels back, bubbles flying from its mouth and nose, and suddenly Link sees that it isn’t a blob of smoke or a black blur, but a person. A person with golden hair and clothed in a white tunic with black undergarments.

  
It isn’t a smokey figure that’s trying to kill him. It’s a person that’s trying to kill him.

  
The hand still fisted in his tunic yanks Link up. Link tries to punch it again, but the person’s other hand intersects his. His enemy yells something, but between the water distorting its voice and Link’s mind screaming _fight fight fight_ , the message remains unknown.

  
And then his head breaks the surface of the water. Link gasps, breathing taking priority over everything else. The hands release him as Link greedily sucks in air, and it’s only then that Link remembers _oh yeah, someone is trying to kill him._

  
With a start, Link backpedals away from them, a hand flying to his trusted sword— _when did that get there?_ —strapped to his back, only for the handle to sear his skin through his gloves. With a yelp, Link cradles his hand to his chest, kicking to stay above the water without getting tangled in the sailcloth. His opponent holds his own hands over his bloody nose. He is glaring at Link, but there is no malice in his eyes— _eye_.

  
However, his opponent is between Link and the shore, and _very irritated_.

  
“Are you going to freak out and punch me in the face again, or what?” He snaps, which only serves to confuse Link even further.

  
“Are you going to try to kill me again, or what?” Link retorts, much to his opponent’s chagrin. Is the man even an enemy anymore?

  
“Kill you? I dragged you out of the lake after you fell from the sky and _punched me in the face!_ ” The man yells, irritation turning into anger. “And I— “

  
Link doesn’t hear the rest of his rant. A hand that does not belong to the man seizes his boot and _yanks_. Link barely has time to yelp, never mind take a breath, before he is back under the water and surrounded by a murky shadow. White hot pain tears into his left shoulder, and Link has just enough self-control to not gasp and breathe in water.

  
Red eyes gleam in the middle of the darkness, obstructing all light and leaving Link in a void with nothing but a blade embedded in his shoulder to remind him that there is more in life than the pressure in his chest from lack of air and twin red irises.

  
Such as the Master Sword.

  
Link tries to unsheathe it, but his right arm is still tangled in the sailcloth and his left arm is incapacitated due to the blade. He feels the sword pulse— _Fi?_ —against his back as he struggles to free himself. The eyes watch him, almost amused, before a dark hand flies at him and wrenches the dagger from his shoulder. It goes to swipe at him again, but Link thrusts his right arm between the weapon and himself, taking advantage of the sailcloth in hopefully blocking the shadow’s vision as the blade bites into his arm. Clenching his jaw and biting back a scream, Link tugs the Master Sword free from its sheathe and blindly stabs at the shadow. He hears a shriek so distorted and muddled that it sends chills down his spine, but Link pulls his weapon back and stabs forward again, the radiance emanating from the sword banishing the darkness surrounding him.

  
As light returns to his vision, he sees another sword in the body of the shadow. When Link looks up, he sees the man from before now sporting injuries of his own—aside from the bloody nose Link had dealt. The shadow writhes, another shriek ripping from its throat as the Master Sword shines even brighter. It disappears seconds later, leaving no traces of its physical being behind.

  
The man grabs his collar again, and in a flash of green, Link is suddenly on his hands and knees, sweet, _sweet_ , land under them. Link nearly chokes, drawing in large amounts of air for the second time that day.

  
At least, he was, before a boot slams into his side and send him sprawling onto the ground on his back. The same boot presses down on his chest, and Link’s hands fly up to try and dislodge it as the man leans over him with a murderous look in his eye. He notices the strange markings on the man’s face for the first time.

  
“How did you get that sword, thief?” he snarls, his own weapon pointing at Link’s neck and making him freeze in his efforts.

  
“ _Thief?_ ” Link yelps, “I’m not a thief!”

  
“You’re going to tell me that you just obtained the three Spiritual Stones, the Ocarina of Time, and the Song of Time?” The man growls, putting more weight on Link’s chest. “I don’t buy it. Now _explain_.”

  
“What are you talking about?” Spiritual Stones? An ocarina?

  
“How did you get the sword?” The man’s weapon lowers just slightly in an unspoken threat.

  
“I _made_ it!” Link yells, pressing himself further into the dirt in an attempt to create space between his neck and the unnervingly large sword.

  
“Bullshit! You don’t just make the Master Sword!”

  
“I forged this sword with my very hands,” Link snaps in a burst of anger, “using the three sacred flames of the Golden Goddesses! And you’re suggesting I _stole it?_ ”

  
“The Master Sword is as old as the kingdom itself,” The man exclaims. “You really expect me to believe you made it?”

  
A kingdom? On the Surface? “What kingdom? There are no kingdoms on the Surface!”

  
Now that the thought has entered his mind, Link realizes that he has never seen this man before, and there are no people on the Surface. Gorons, Kikwis, the ancient robots, but never another person. Only Impa had been on the Surface before he and Zelda, and she’s gone.

  
The man sneers, “You’re really playing dumb, aren’t you?”

  
Link shakes his head, opening his mouth to reply, when he sees the hand the man is using to hold his sword begin glowing gold. The man looks down at it, anger dissipating into confusion.

  
Beside Link, resting just out of arm’s reach, the Master Sword lets out a soft chime.

  
“You…” Link begins, just as startled as the man. “You have the Triforce?”

  
The man glares down at him. “Don’t get any ideas. I only have one piece of it, and—”

  
“You have Hylia’s blessing,” Link interrupts. The man snorts.

  
“Hylia’s _curse_ more like.” The sword lets out another chime, as if in protest.

  
“It’s not a curse!” Link exclaims, affronted. “It’s—”

  
“If you know so much about the Triforce and Hylia’s plans, then you would certainly know where we are and how difficult it is to get the Master Sword,” The man snaps. “You’re a bad liar.”

  
“I’m not lying!” Link yells. The sword chimes again, louder this time. The mark on the man’s hand glows brighter.

  
“Then you’re—” the man is interrupted by himself as he hisses in pain. The glow on his hand is more like a beacon of light at this point, and the man clutches at it with his free hand. The Master Sword continues to chime, almost frantically. Fi is trying to tell them something.

  
“Pick up the Master Sword,” Link says. “You have the mark of the Triforce. She will not harm you.”

  
The man eyes him, but after a moment, he removes his weapon and lifts his boot off Link’s chest.

  
“Don’t move,” the man orders. Link complies, just happy to be able to breathe properly again. Without the threat of a sword at his neck, the adrenaline begins to fade, reminding Link of his two stab wounds and the gash on his cheek. The man kneels beside him, and Link watches as he hesitantly picks up the Master Sword. The effect is immediate; the frantic chiming calming to a gentle ring and the dangerous gleam in the man’s eye softening into surprise. The mark on his hand stops glowing.

  
Fi is speaking to him, and for once, Link cannot understand what she is saying.

  
When the Master Sword stops glowing, the man looks down at him.

  
“It calls you the Chosen Hero,” he says, “And it tells me you are not lying.”

  
_Thank you, Fi!_ Link wishes he could see her again to properly thank her.

  
“I want to know how you’re even alive,” The man adds. “I didn’t even think you were real.”

  
“Wait, what?” Link attempts to sit up, but his wounds shriek in protest. There’s a flash of guilt in the man’s eye. “Of course I’m real,” Link grunts, taking the man’s hand when he reaches out to help.

  
The man blinks. “I suppose you are, but how are you here?”

  
Link shrugs one shoulder to avoid aggravating his injury. “I’m not sure. I don’t remember there being a lake on the Surface like this.” He pauses. “Unless Faron flooded the woods again,” He adds in a murmur. This certainly didn’t look like the Faron Woods, though.

  
“The Surface?”

  
Link nods “Yeah! The land beneath the Cloud Barrier. I know that’s not what it’s actually called, but—”

  
The man waves his hands, urging Link to stop. “Wait, pause. The land beneath a—you’re going to have to explain to me what the hell that even means.”

* * *

It is safe to say that Link is more confused than he has ever been in his entire life. Understanding Ghirahim’s… _movements_ … would be less confusing at this point.

  
To be fair, it is clear the man is just as lost as he is.

  
For starters, Link is apparently in a place called Hyrule Kingdom and the man has apparently never heard of Skyloft—though he _has_ heard of an ancient city in the sky from old fairy tales. It takes well over an hour for the two to realize that perhaps Link is not in the right time period—again—and it takes not much longer afterwards to realize that this man is much more similar to Link than he initially thought; After Link had mentioned his fight with Demise, the man told Link that he had to fight a great evil years ago in the form of a man named Ganondorf, who had attempted to use the Triforce for his own evil desires.

  
Fi calls him the Hero of Time. Link isn’t sure why; she won’t tell him. 

  
During all of this, the man had healed both of their injuries with a fairy—he had to call over his horse for it, which nearly gave Link a heart attack because he had never seen an animal like that before!

  
“She’s normally not this friendly with strangers,” The man comments as the horse, Epona, whinnies happily under Link’s hands.

  
“She reminds me of my Loftwing,” Link chirps, chuckling when Epona nuzzles his hand. “Speaking of strangers, I don’t even know your name.”

  
“Oh, well in that case,” The man holds out a hand for Link to clasp. “My name is Link.”

  
Link freezes.

  
“ _Those like you… Those who share the blood of the goddess and the spirit of the hero… They are eternally bound to this curse. An incarnation of my hatred shall ever follow your kind, dooming them to wander a blood-soaked sea of darkness for all time!_ ”

  
A man named Ganondorf had tried to seize the Triforce to use for his own evil desires, according to the man. A man who knows the significance of the Master Sword. A man who has a piece of the Triforce.

  
A man Fi calls a Hero, just like Link himself.

  
_The curse came true._

  
No— surely it’s a coincidence.

  
Right?

  
Link blinks, hard, and shakes the man’s hand, who looks somewhat concerned. “Well, Link, it’s nice to meet you. My name is also Link.”

  
It’s just a coincidence.

  
The man barks out a laugh. “Really?”

  
Link grins. “Sure is.”

  
“Same old shit,” The man chuckles. “Alright then, Chosen Hero, what is the deal with that shadow?”

  
“I don’t know,” Link replies. “I was going home with my groceries when it attacked me.”

  
Sadly, his groceries, the gemstone included, had disappeared. They were replaced with his old gear from his adventure.

  
The man hums in displeasure. “It just appeared out of nowhere?”

  
“Essentially.” Link tilts his head. “How about you?”

  
“I’ve been noticing monsters reappearing lately, but they’re few and far in between, and nothing like the shadow. It’s why I even had my sword with me.” The man lets out a long sigh, a world of unspoken troubles made clear. “I suppose this means I have to find the root of it all. Again.”

  
“Well, since I’m not going home anytime soon, would you like a companion?”

  
The man smiles. “It would be greatly appreciated. But we need some nicknames first.”

  
“Agreed,” Link chuckles.

  
And as they set off, with Epona trailing behind them, Link can’t help but feel like there was a lot left unsaid between them. Sure, the man had opened up a little about his journey, but it was clear Link wasn’t getting all the details. Not only that, but the man seemed tired. Not tired like he didn’t sleep well last night, but a tiredness that seemed to encompass his entire being.

  
He has a feeling those markings are part of the reason. 

**Author's Note:**

> Writing Sky and Time was tough. Especially since we don’t see them act this way too often. It was a nice challenge, and I hope I captured their characters right.  
> I hope you enjoyed!


End file.
